I have a StingRay 5. Great neck and frets. Problem is, it weights 10-1/2 lbs. My limit for a gigging bass is 9 lbs.

I thought of removing the preamp, but I found out it is very light, so with the less few knobs, PC board, battery, etc., I will only save about 4 ounces. Changing the tuning keys to Ultralites will save me 6 ounces.

I'm determined to play this bass, as it sounds and plays phenomenal.

So my last option is rounting the body in the area under the pickguard. I will do a professional job (router with guide, etc.)

But I'm wondering if taking all that wood will have any adverse effect in the sound. The body is 1-3/4" thick or so, and I'm planning to route leaving it about 1/4" thick, so there will still be plenty of structural integrity.

I'm wondering if I will lose too much sustain or create any overtones, or lose clarity in the B-string, etc.

I've had semihollow basses and chambered basses (Sadowsky) and they all sounded pretty good to me. . ., but this won't be a chamber with an attached top, just a big route with a pickguard on top?

I'm also thinking on doing separate routings instead of completely carving the whole area, to retain more rigidity. . .

Any thoughts?

If you like the bass that much, why worry about it being 15% overweight?

Just switch the tuners and save a little weight.

If you like the bass that much, why worry about it being 15% overweight?

Just switch the tuners and save a little weight.

Problem is, by the second set I can't handle it anymore. I get bad shoulder and back pain. And I use a 4"-wide strap already.

I have weighted and tested many basses and I know my limit is 9 lbs...

Problem is, by the second set I can't handle it anymore. I get bad shoulder and back pain. And I use a 4"-wide strap.

I have weighted and tested many basses and I know my limit is 9 lbs...

Gotcha.

Try using two straps, my bass teacher, has the same bass, and he has shoulder problem because of heart surgery. It seems to do him fine. only a suggestion though!

Routing on that bass will kill the resale value.If that one is too heavy,I'd suggest selling it and finding one that's lighter,or trading it for another that suits you better.I went through the same thing and had 2 SR5's that were way too heavy.Gotta keep looking till you find the right one. But don't cut on the body in any way.

Routing on that bass will kill the resale value.If that one is too heavy,I'd suggest selling it and finding one that's lighter,or trading it for another that suits you better.I went through the same thing and had 2 SR5's that were way too heavy.Gotta keep looking till you find the right one. But don't cut on the body in any way.

Well, I'm lefty. Used SR5s show up once every six month on eBay. I have had 5 other SR5s already. Only one of them was about around 9-1/2 lbs, which I still have, and it's a fretless; all others have been as heavy as the fretted I have now.

Again, because I'm lefty, my 5-strings options are very limited, that is why I'm thinking about doing this, since the weight is the only thing making the bass less-than-perfect. . .

Have you tried using the plug and jack to "pin" your strap?
It will not make it lighter, but I did this felt the balance was much improved.

Have you tried using the plug and jack to "pin" your strap?
It will not make it lighter, but I did this felt the balance was much improved.

i'd expect the weight to still give him back problems.

Um, go for it! I believe you like the SR tone, so just go for it, especially since you won't be selling it. The above poster is right in saying that your resale value will be gone, though.

Do what I did; it shouldn't affect it's resale value too much......













http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/256/256242/folders/258226/2046608p04.jpg





:D


Mike

what you CAN do, is to have a new body made...use all the existing hardware and electronics, and just transfer this to the new body....

take a light ash centre strip, and mount two ponderosa pine wings on it....rout the body to shape, and chamber it thoroughly....then laminate the top and bottom with 1/4" pieces of ash...

end result, a very light weight body...ultra lite tuners a necessity now to help control neck dive....

original body goes into a box for future reassembly and resale...

what will this set you back? about $500 - $700, depending on your finish choice...

coming from experience....routing your body will change your overall tone. you ever thing of replacing the bridge? most of the weight in your hardware comes from the bridge. try using an ultra light bridge. don't have any names off the top of my head but I can get them for you if you want them.

coming from experience....routing your body will change your overall tone. you ever thing of replacing the bridge? most of the weight in your hardware comes from the bridge. try using an ultra light bridge. don't have any names off the top of my head but I can get them for you if you want them.

most of the HARDWARE weight comes from the bridge...but 90% of the weight on the body comes from the wood...

removing serious wood is the only way to seriously reduce weight..

And to seriously destroy balance...

i have lightened guitars by removing 1/4" of wood from the top of the body, chambering them then attaching a new top to them.

Chambering will have a big impact on the tone, sometimes for the better, sometimes not

If you do large hollow chambers it has more of an effect on the sound than if you do small randomly placed weight relief chambers (i.e. forstner drill bit holes)

I wouldn't do that on this bass because of the re-sale, it really would make a lot more sense to have a body built out of something more lightweight.

Anything you do will affect tone. It might not be a bad thing though! The only problem I see is that you might gain some feed back problems like archtop players have. You could also get some weird overtones or buzzing from the plastic pick guard acting like a drum head. If you do, then all you need to do is install a piece of hard foam in the cavity to fill it and support the pick guard.

As far as value is concerned, what value is an instrument hanging on the wall that you don't want to play? Dollars are only one way of evaluating the worth of an instrument.

Greg N

One word: helium.

Thanks for the replies.

Aw, man, this isn't and easy decision. It would royally suck if I end up doing this and then the bass sounds like crap. Resale value is not in my mind; I got the bass used for a lot less than street price. Balance could be a problem, even with Ultralites, and neck dive, as mentioned is sometimes worse than overall weight. The bass is well balanced right now.

Pluggin a pin in the strap botton won't realy help much, as SR5s are already well balanced.

Routing it cheese style is not an option either, Mike! I'm digging the purple, though.

Making a new body is definitely a good idea, since I really like the dimensions and ergonomics of the bass, but yes, it won't be cheap. . . Who makes customs bodies like that? Any of you out there?

I haven't though about changing the bridge, since I didn't want to mess with the setup/action, etc, which is perfect right now, but it makes a lot of sense. I would have to drill new holes, but no big deal.

I'm thinking if I change the bridge and the tuning keys, I could save close to 1 pound. . . I might go that route.

Thanks, guys.

Yeah, I think you're right to start with the bridge and tuning keys, see how that feels. If you want a custom body made, there are several TBers who are builders. You could talk to them.

I can see how weight is a big problem for you. I have similar gripes of backpain. my solution is just to get a few sit-down songs in a set so I can rest up a bit. I know it's not very rock and roll but it works for me.

One word: helium.

the material used to keep the helium in would weigh more than the weight the helium saved. from what i remember helium can pass thru wood/rubber/most things if given enough time.

On Topic: yeah try the hardware first.

My lefty stingray 4 is heavy as well, very odd. I'd build a new body and if you ever sell it you could still have the original. Some greek bloke bought a Yamaha John Pattitucci model in RH and begged Warmoth to make him a lefty body. They did.

Any custom luthier should be able to make you a bolt on body, and the ones with a copy carver can probably copy your body quite closely, accounting for chambered construction, lighter woods etc

I personally can't see routing affecting the sound very much, and if you did so in a professional manner no one should ever notice. NOW removing that preamp will affect tone, the pre and pickups are what give the Stingrays "that" tone.

One word: helium.

Hydrogen works better. And neither would do a thing unless you attach a balloon the size of a small room. ;)

I say if you like the tone of the bass, leave it alone. It wont sound the same if you make it lighter. You can try an aluminum bridge and light weight tuners, but I don't think that will take much weight off the bass. And it will sound different.

Find another bass for gigging and keep this for recording. Ot find a second bass you can switch too.

The reason for the weight difference in basses is the wood the body is made from. EB states the weight of a SR5 is "10 pounds - varies slightly". They also state the body is "selected hardwoods". A white ash body would be very heavy, while a red alder body would be a lot lighter. Swamp ash would be lighter than white ash.

My main bass is about 12 lbs. It can start to get to my 49 year old back!

Resale value is over rated. The problem with instrument prices is everyone is concerned with resale value. How many people sell their basses anyway? I've never sold a bass that I play. Only some vintage basses I collected, like a '63 Mosrite I had.

You buy instruments to play them, not to worry about how much money they are worth. If you need to modify your bass to make it work for you, it's your bass. I wouldn't modify a vintage instrument, but I have modified basses that became vintage instruments!

I guess it pains me to know that my two '74 Rics aren't worth what a stock bass would go for, but they are still nice basses.

Best thing is to have a bass built for you. :)

i love being lefty while playing righty bass...(i cant play lefty basses for my life btw) the switching bodies idea should work rather well...while still saving resale value, and i believe the frets are what is causing the extra weight

Routing on that bass will kill the resale value.If that one is too heavy,I'd suggest selling it and finding one that's lighter,or trading it for another that suits you better.I went through the same thing and had 2 SR5's that were way too heavy.Gotta keep looking till you find the right one. But don't cut on the body in any way.

I agree, either sell it or use it only for studio work where weight won't be an issue.

and i believe the frets are what is causing the extra weight

The frets?!?!? You're joking, right? That's about two ounces!

A pound of high/wide fretwire for a bass is about 46 feet of wire. So each fret is 0.34 oz. It takes about 6 feet to do a bass neck. So 6 feet is 2.08 ounces.

The extra weight is because one is made from heavier wood, probably white ash. They make baseball bats from white ash.

Like this one:

http://www.ernieball.com/mmonline/specs/inst_stingray5.jpg

Resale value is over rated. The problem with instrument prices is everyone is concerned with resale value. How many people sell their basses anyway?

Personally, I think the prices of "vintage" (whatever that means in instrument terms) instruments is ridiculous and no way in the world are they that much better. Based on this, resale value has meaning when an instrument does become "vintage".

The reality is that people do sell some of their instruments for various reasons, vintage or not. So, if you do have a stock vintage instrument to sell, you're more likely to thank yourself for not modifying it all those years ago.

However, I do agree with your comments on modification because I have done this myself for the same reasons you state. I knew I could get a better sound and playability of two vintage instruments I used to own by changing the bridge and pickups, which indeed was the case. And good advice on using a different bass live.

Best thing is to have a bass built for you.

I also don't see any reason to touch the wood on the SR5. Again, I concur with David's comments, contact a luthier to build you an awesome light weight bass or even a light weight body to balance well with the SR5 neck.

You can remove a little wood under the pickguard. I used a hole saw. Be careful to not let the drill of the hole saw go through the body, and you can use a chisel to remove the stubs of wood left after all the hole sawing.

Thats how I would go about doing it too. Do you mean a forstner bit?

Have you tried on of these?
http://www.slider-straps.com/STR/bass.html

No.

http://www.subtleenergies.com/ORMUS/tw/traps/tt16.jpg

I would recommend a forstners bit........:eyebrow:

or if you're cheap you can put tape around the part of the bit that you don't want to drill beyond.

hey man

you seem pretty confident in your routing skills so why not use those skills and a few weekends to make your own body?

i have a mate who made a body for his guitar in an afternoon.

he made it out of jarrah though... definantly not a weight saving wood.